Commonwealth Games: Tom Daley is in at the deep end

The 16-year-old diver aims to end a year that has seen him battle injury and loss of form in the best possible way — with a gold medal in Delhi

Tom Daley is seeking a gold medal on the 10m platform in Delhi (Martin Bureau)
Tom Daley bounces into the athletes’ village in Delhi, a breath of fresh air
amid the heat and humidity. No, he has no idea about the state of the water
in the aquatic centre or the outbreak of illness in the English camp. Yes,
he is quite happy to be here and looking forward to competing.

The breeziness belies what has been a pretty tough year for the 16-year-old
who, for the first time in his rise to the status of boy wonder of British
Olympic sport, has been forced to confront injury and loss of form.

A sore back kept him out of the national championships in the spring and a
more serious triceps injury, caused by a badly executed dive, confined him
to the 3m springboard — as opposed to his usual 10m platform — for his two
most recent events, the Youth Olympics in Singapore and the junior world